Sankaty was designed by Chauncey G. Whiton.[1] The ship was 195 feet (59m) long,[1] a slim vessel with twin propellers and twin smokestacks.[2] She had a 36-foot (11m)beam,[3] and 32 feet (10m) at the waterline and drew 9feet 6inches (2.9m) of water. The ship had a depth of hold of 13 feet (4.0m).[1] The ship had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 657 tons. Sankaty rolled much more than the sidewheelers that preceded it. Because of this, the ladies' parlor and toilet was situated on the upper deck in a location to reduce the motion and vibration while on the rough waters of Vineyard Sound.[4][5]
Sankaty built by the Fore River Works in Quincy, Massachusetts[7] with the yard number 192.[5] The ship was launched on 2 February 1911 and completed in April.[5][4] From her construction in 1911 until 1924, Sankaty operated as a ferry for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company, serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. While not the first propeller-driven steamer to serve these islands (which was Helen Augusta which substituted for Monohansett during the American Civil War) it marked the end of the paddlewheel steamer era for the Cape and Islands.[2][5]
On the night of June 30, 1924, Sankaty caught fire and burned down to her steel hull while tied up overnight in New Bedford harbor.[4] She drifted across the Acushnet River in flames and crashed into the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, setting her on fire as well.[9][10]
Sankaty was raised, sold and rebuilt with an open deck for use as a car ferry in Rockland, Maine.[4] Owned by the New England Steamship Company, the vessel was sold to Snow Marine Company in 1925.[5] In 1931, the vessel was sold again, this time to the Stamford-Oyster Bay Ferries Corporation to serve as a ferry between Stamford, Connecticut, and Oyster Bay, Long Island.[5][11][12]
Canadian service and fate
Sailors with a mine aboard HMCS Sankaty off Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 1941
After the war she was renamed Charles A. Dunning, and served from 1946 until 1964 in the waters between Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia. During this period her capacity was twenty-three cars and four trucks.[14] She was sold for scrap in 1964, but sank en route to Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 27, 1964.[5]
1 2 Macpherson, Ken & Barrie, Ron (2002). The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002 (Thirded.). St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing. p.229. ISBN1-55125-072-1.
Tucker, Gilbert Norman (1952). The Naval Service of Canada, Its Official History – Volume 2: Activities on Shore During the Second World War. Ottawa: King's Printer. p.109. OCLC4346983.
HMCS Cape Breton was a Royal Canadian Navy Cape-class maintenance ship. Originally built for the Royal Navy as HMS Flamborough Head in 1944, she was transferred in 1952. Upon her commissioning she was the second ship to bear the name Cape Breton. She served operationally from 1953–1964, when she was laid up. She was used as a floating machine shop until the late-1990s, before being sold for use as an artificial reef off the coast of British Columbia.
The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, doing business as The Steamship Authority (SSA), is the statutory regulatory body for all ferry operations between mainland Massachusetts and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well an operator of ferry services between the mainland and the islands. It is the only ferry operator to carry automobiles to and from the islands. The Authority also operates several freight vessels, thus serving as the main link for shipping any commercial goods that are not transported using the airports on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.
A & J Inglis Limited, was a shipbuilding firm founded by Anthony Inglis and his brother John, engineers and shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland in 1862. The firm built over 500 ships in a period of just over 100 years. Their Pointhouse Shipyard was at the confluence of the rivers Clyde and Kelvin. They constructed a wide range of ships, including Clyde steamers, paddle steamers and small ocean liners. In wartime, they built small warships, and in the period after World War II, they built a number of whalers.
HMCS Cedarwood was a surveying vessel in the Royal Canadian Navy. She was a wooden sailing ship that was built as MV J.E. Kinney by Smith and Rhuland at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and used in the harbours of the east coast of Canada by the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps as General Schmidlin during the Second World War. Following the war the vessel was purchased by the Royal Canadian Navy. The ship was sold again for mercantile service in 1959 and remained in service until 1969.
CSS Acadia is a former hydrographic surveying and oceanographic research ship of the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and its successor the Canadian Hydrographic Service.
The River Queen was a sidewheel steamer launched in 1864. It soon became closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant while operating on the Potomac River, and was used for an unsuccessful peace conference in 1865 during the last year of the American Civil War. Later it operated as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the late 19th century. Late in its career, it returned to the Potomac as an excursion vessel, and in 1911, it was destroyed in a fire.
The Island Home was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Martha's Vineyard was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the island of Martha's Vineyard during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Uncatena was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the island of Martha's Vineyard during the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Nantucket was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. On the Vineyard it docked at Cottage City, Vineyard Haven, and the West Chop Wharf.
Monohansett was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the island of Martha's Vineyard during the late nineteenth century. She was named after Monohansett Island, a tiny 12-acre (4.9-hectare) island off Naushon Island.
HMCS Caribou was an armed yacht that served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Originally named Memory III, the vessel was renamed Elfreda while in private use as a personal yacht. After her commissioning and renaming to Caribou, she was used as a patrol and training vessel on the East coast of Canada. Following the war the ship was sold for commercial use until her registry was deleted in 1963.
The Nobska was a steamship that plied the waters of Nantucket Sound as part of The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority's fleet between 1925 and 1973 as a ferry. She was eventually scrapped in 2006 despite efforts to save her. She was America's last East Coast coastal steamer, had been on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland, and had been considered one of America's 10 most endangered maritime resources by the National Maritime Alliance and National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Metropolitan Steamship Company was for 75 years one of the chief transportation links between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. It was closely associated with the Whitney family until its acquisition by Charles W. Morse in 1906. Even after being merged into Eastern Steamship Lines, it was maintained as a distinct service, the Metropolitan Line, until 1941.
Acushnet – a steel-hulled revenue cutter – was launched on 16 May 1908 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.; sponsored by Miss Alayce Duff; and commissioned at Baltimore on 6 November 1908. She saw service as a United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter, a U.S. Navy fleet tug, and as a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. She was taken out of service 8 January 1946.
The SS Nantucket was the last steam-powered ferry in regular operation on the East Coast of the United States. She was owned and operated by the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority between 1957 and 1987.
Erg was a vessel built and owned by Halifax Steamship Ltd. in 1915. She was used to ferry workers across the harbour to vessels under repair during the Second World War. Erg was sunk in the Halifax Harbour three times and is currently located in the Bedford Basin.
RMS Lady Nelson was a steam turbine ocean liner which served in passenger service from 1928 to 1968 and operated as wartime hospital ship from 1943 to 1945. One of a class of five sister ships popularly known as "Lady Boats", she was built for the Canadian National Steamship Company (CNS). The five vessels were Royal Mail Ships that CNS operated from Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Caribbean via Bermuda. Lady Nelson was sold to Egyptian owners in 1953 and served as Gumhuryat Misr and Alwadi until she was scrapped in 1968.
HMCS Quinte was a Bangor-class minesweeper constructed for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. The ship entered service in 1941 and took part in the Battle of the Atlantic. On 30 November 1942, Quinte ran aground and sank off Cape Breton Island. The ship was re-floated and repaired and spent the rest of the war as a training ship. Following the war, the minesweeper was used for naval research until decommissioned in 1946. The vessel was sold for scrap and broken up in 1947.
HMCS Whitethroat was a controlled minelayer based on the Isles-class naval trawler constructed for Canada in the United Kingdom during World War II. The ship was completed near the end of the war and most of its naval service was spent dismantling the defences erected during the war. In 1946 the ship was paid off and became a naval auxiliary and given the new prefix CNAV Whitethroat. As an auxiliary, Whitethroat was used a naval research platform and to repair undersea cables. Reactivated for the Korean War as a minelayer again, the vessel returned to auxiliary service on the Pacific Coast from 1954 to 1967. Whitethroat was sold for scrap in 1967.
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